Sunday, April 26, 2009

So we're pretty glad we put together the playhouse that the kids got for Christmas from G & G and the Lippers - considering it's got about 4 inches of snow on top of it. Seriously. When will this weather turn to spring? Just ridiculous. But to cheer us up, we're having a deck built this week. I'm sure it won't be too fun to shovel it off for the next month, but alas, a deck nonetheless!! It will be Lola-accessible, and Leni is excited to be able to take Lolly outside on nice days.

Now if only we could start planting flowers soon. sigh.

I'm learning lots and lots of patience these days. Truly I am.

Thanks for the prayers for our family. We're soaking them up.










Guess who's a sitter? That's right - big girl decided that she didn't need a seat to help her sit up - she thought it would be cool to just sit up on her own.




So here she is!




I also liked the big grin - cheese-eating smiley girl.














Saturday, April 18, 2009

Leaning in for a kiss...









Here she is! She can sit in this contraption for quite a while - then eventually she gets bored and wants out.


Then brother had to get in on the action.



Lolly did some sitting today, and she's really getting good at it. Of course, she's fixated on the TV most of the time, but that's okay!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Something different everyday...

Lola has had a few sleepless nights - lots of crying in the middle of the night. She does it with her eyes closed though, and stops once she fully "wakes up." ....almost like nightmares or something. She is in a great mood during the day though, so it's only Mommy who's suffering. *yawn* So today's new thing - rolling over both directions, then grabbing behind her knees. She's also been doing lots of smiling lately, which we all love to see. She's continuing to use her left hand to grab toys, her brother's shirt, mommy's hair, etc. - and is starting to slowly do the same with her right hand. Today, her nanny (Leni) got her to eat an entire minigo! She was opening her mouth on command, and "chewing" when she was asked to as well.
She did really well at physio this week, though I wish they would be more aggressive like the in-patient team was. Oh well......I'm just being impatient. We only have an hour of week of physio/OT/SLP now, so I really want it to count.

Liam's having a blast - he's on Easter break. His favorite pastime is teaching Leni the "Liam rules" of the house - yeah, right. He started gymnastics last week, and he told us that today he did a somersault on the balance beam - that's quite an accomplishment in a week! ha. He's counting down the days till his birthday. He's not having a party this year, because he went for the big present instead - so he'll be getting a big boy bike and a full face helmet this year. Lucky boy! He's told us his special birthday supper will be any of the following: shrimp and rice, pizza and crazy bread, spaghetti, ravioli, and steak and shrimp (of course I'm secretly hoping for the last choice). Daddy's making a chocolate cake for him - that's what Liam picked.

So both kids are doing well. Steve and I are loving (not) our commutes, and doing the 9-5 gig. I'm counting down the days till the end of the school year. Actually, I'm only counting down the days until the musical is finished - get me to May 29.....

Off to watch Bedtime Stories with the kids.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Bunny Hop

Baby Girl had some smiles for Mama...

What? He hid them in here??
Bubby, you missed one!



Dad, LOOK!!!



Look! Eggs on my car!



Lola was pretty excited about her singing duck. He sings "Singing in the Rain." Liam has been non-stop action-packed since he woke up. He's covered in tattoos, full of candy (and a sunny-side up egg/toast), out front riding his bike with Daddy. We're cleaning up and getting ready for Uncle Sean and Leafy.










Saturday, April 11, 2009

My goal is simple: get my daughter to eat. I'm relentless - truly. Here's the thing though - Lola LOVES food. I've had to take a baggy of bacon with me to a barbecue just in case she didn't like what they were having. She used to be a good little eater, and LOVED her juice and chocolate milk (aka "pleep pleep"). If you can get the food into her mouth, she will swallow it. That much we know. The problem is that she won't let you get anywhere near her mouth with a spoon or a sippy cup. So tonight, I tried her with mini-gos - and she ate about 1/3 of the little container. Not bad. It was pretty tough to get it into her mouth, but she definitely swallowed it once it was far enough back. (If you just put it at the front, she'll spit it back out pretty quickly). My next goal is to get her to remember her fondness for apple juice. To that end, I tried her with her favorite sippy cup - no dice. She didn't want that stuffed in her face. Then I tried a straw. It was somewhat like feeding a baby bird with an eyedropper. And again, she swallowed it once I got it in there. Hurray! Juice is fast, so I'm not supposed to really be doing this - but I'm not the most patient person on the planet (just in case somebody didn't know that).
So there you go. That's my goal.
We've been trying to make Lola smile - so we found out that Beyonce's "Single Ladies" does the trick. Pubba and I played it for her a few times when she was in the hospital - actually, we cranked it. ha. So she seems to like it/remember it. I sing, "All the Single Lollies..." though. Because it's all about Lola.
Just waiting for these nerds to go to bed and then we're doing the bunny thing. I have no clue where to find the baskets/plastic eggs, so this could be interesting. Lola couldn't have chocolate and candy this year (obviously) - come to think of it, I don't know that she got much last year either - so I had to be creative. She got some fancy barrettes, a tutu that my friend Lisa made (it's so cute), a Brats mermaid for the tub, and a few recycled gifts from the hospital. Liam's getting whatever goes into his eggs (skittles, m and m's), some craft supplies (pompoms, beads, pipe cleaners), and a Bakugan shooter he's been eyeing for weeks. Usually it's an egg hunt, a chocolate bunny, and a kite or something for outside. Do you think I could find a chocolate bunny anywhere in this city? Seriously? So if Liam mentions how hard-done-by he is, just ignore him. I'd never let him eat the thing anyway - it's like 3 bites and it gets stuffed on a high shelf in the pantry, never to be found again.
Tomorrow Uncle Sean and Leafy are coming for dinner. I bought a great big spiral ham - no idea who's going to eat all this ham, but I had a hankering for it (thanks to my sister - who told me that's what she was making). At any rate, that's the plan for tomorrow.

Hope everyone has a great Easter!

Friday, April 10, 2009




We've been trying out a few different strollers to see which one best fits Lola now. She seemed to like this one - so we'll be using this one when we go home to visit everyone in Sarnia this July.


This is an April 3 update from Lola's Facebook group - Pray for Lola.

Wow, I've been a bad updater....please forgive me.Lola has been making some great improvements this past month. It seems like everyday there's something new. She's been doing much better with her sitting up - completely unsupported - for up to 20 seconds. That is amazing to see. She's also smiling a lot - especially at her little animals and friends that dance and sing (basically any annoying toy that moves when you push a button - the more creepy the better). So there's a lot of smiling going on around here. If I put my face near hers, she'll stroke it with her hand - or pinch or smack it depending on her mood. She also likes to play with her ponytails. Lola has started reaching out for small toys and holding onto them for a while. She's also been 'chatting' lots - sometimes we think we hear words, but we're not sure. She responds if you ask her a question, or if you say hi she'll say something back. She's understanding us - that much I know. If you ask her where Riley is, she'll scan the room till she finds the dog. When we get her up into crawling position, she does a lot of complaining, but she's holding herself there nicely. She's just getting over a cold (we all are) but other than that, she's doing great. This whole experience feels as though she's going through her "baby stages" all over again...just maybe a bit quicker than she did the first time (we hope). So we're really excited about all these new changes she's making. She's inching her way back to us....Thanks for the love and prayers.

Lola's new blog!


Just doing some experimenting. My sister's been asking me to get a blog started to keep people updated with Lola's progress. This picture of Lola was taken a few weeks ago. She's sure come a long way since December!